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Trai sees boom in cellphone market
December 10, 2003 19:33 IST
India has been adding about two million mobile telephone users per month this year and the growth is expected to accelerate with full implementation of the unified licensing regime, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India chairman Pradip Baijal said.
"We expect even more market growth once the entire unified licensing regime is implemented," Baijal said at a global symposium for regulators organised by the International Telecommunication Union in Geneva, according to a press release issued by ITU.
Baijal said the addition of mobile users per month this year was five times last year's figure and 12 times the seven years' average; the tariffs had come down to half of the previous year's level.
He said Trai was working to reduce the regulatory burden, remove difference between fixed and mobile services which had already been blurred on account of technological developments and aggressive competition amongst operators.
Some of the key measures backed by the regulatory authorities include technologically neutral licences that enable service providers to use most cost-effective technologies to provide services, reducing regulatory burdens to lower the cost.
The GSR has also agreed on a list of best practice regulatory guidelines for achieving universal access.
"The guidelines calls for support for regulatory reform at the highest level of government. This means that treating information and communication technologies as a tool for development rather than a source of government revenue," it said.